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The
defence ministry said the F-16V, the most advanced type in
Taiwan's fleet, went missing from radar screens after taking off
from the Chiayi air base in southern Taiwan for a training
mission over a coastal firing range.
President Tsai Ing-wen issued instructions to spare no efforts
in the search and rescue mission and "to further clarify the
cause of the accident", her spokesman said.
The government's Rescue Command Centre said witnesses had seen
the aircraft crash into the sea and helicopters and ships were
searching for the pilot.
Air Force Inspector-General Liu Hui-chien said the aircraft had
only recently been upgraded to the "V" version, with new weapons
systems and avionics.
Combat training for the F-16 fleet has now been suspended, he
added.
In late 2020, an F-16 vanished shortly after taking off from the
Hualien air base on Taiwan's east coast on a routine training
mission.
Last year, two F-5E fighters, which first entered service in
Taiwan in the 1970s, crashed into the sea off the southeast
coast after they apparently collided in mid-air during a
training mission.
While Taiwan's air force is well trained, it has strained from
repeatedly scrambling to see off Chinese military aircraft in
the past two years, though the accidents have not been linked in
any way to these intercept activities.
China, which claims the democratic island as its own, has been
routinely sending aircraft into Taiwan's air defence zone,
mostly in an area around the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands
but sometimes also into the airspace between Taiwan and the
Philippines.
(Reporting by Roger Tung; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by
Robert Birsel and Timothy Heritage)
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